


i don't mind you coming here (and wasting all my time)

by danicuh



Series: souls draped in rotten tatters [2]
Category: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24260185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danicuh/pseuds/danicuh
Summary: Remy can't stand another day in that filthy Santa Monica apartment—so she tries Mercurio's house.
Relationships: Mercurio (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines)/Original Character(s)
Series: souls draped in rotten tatters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944511
Comments: 14
Kudos: 37





	i don't mind you coming here (and wasting all my time)

**Author's Note:**

> i imagine this is the third night, just before elizabethan rendezvous; she finished talked to lacroix and the anarchs then ran back to santa monica to cry or something after getting traumatized helping the anarchs with the plaguebearers.
> 
> title is from 'just what i needed' by the cars.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Mercurio exclaimed, stopping short in the doorway. Sitting in the dim lamplight, on _his_ couch, was a woman. He gave her a once over—it was that Malkavian from the night before who'd saved his ass. 

Normally he might have reacted differently to finding a stranger sitting in his house in near-darkness, but she didn't look dangerous. Of course in his time he'd learned that any vampire could be dangerous; but this felt like it had to be important. And besides, she _had_ kept his failure a secret, and gotten him that morphine… she was alright in his book for now, but that didn't mean much since he still didn't know how or why she was in his house at the moment.

She looked up at him almost nonchalantly, but the glint in her dead eyes looked fearful. She had a laptop sitting open on the couch next to her, and there was a backpack beside her feet. It was zipped up tight. _What, she trying to have a sleepover?_

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, slamming the laptop shut. "I couldn't go back to that apartment." Her eyes darted around wildly. "I was afraid."

Mercurio shut the door. "Yeah, it's fuckin' middle of the night in Los Angeles, there's crackheads everywhere. But what the hell you got to be afraid of?" He didn't mean to be rude, he just wasn't sure what she needed from him. He was just a ghoul with too many connections. It wasn't any of his business what the Prince had her doing.

Her eyes widened, almost like she was shocked that he didn't know. She shook her head as she replied, "Lots. These past two nights—the things I've seen! I just—no, never mind." Frantically, she grabbed the backpack from the floor and unzipped it, shoving the laptop inside. From what he could see, it was full of personal stuff. _Jesus, was she plannin' on stickin' around?_ She jumped to her feet.

"Wait, hold on now, wait a second." Mercurio stepped in front of the door, stopping her from leaving. "So you're not used to this vampire business, huh, is that it?" He was annoyed by the breaking and entering, but he did feel sorry for her. He might as well hear her out and return the favor she'd done for him.

She hugged the bag tighter to her chest. Her eyes, one brown and one green, were round with worry. "No! No. A week ago the biggest problem in my life was studying for some test… but you know what I just saw? You want to know what I just did?" She didn't wait for him to guess. "I killed people—killed them again. They were vampires, and they were giving each other diseases, giving homeless people diseases… turning people into zombies… I met a flesh-eating vampire in the basement of a hospital. I feel sick! Everything can always get worse, and it really seems like it's _always_ getting worse. I hate this place. The Prince keeps asking me to do things, and I keep hearing voices, and I'm—"

Mercurio reached a hand out to set it on her shoulder, interrupting her. She sure did talk a lot; and so fast he could hardly make out what she was even saying. "Whoa, take it easy. Runnin' yourself outta breath, if you had any. Why don't you go sit down again? When's the last time you ate something?"

She laughed nervously and quietly, following him back to the couch. "Eating! Drinking, more like..." she trailed off, absentmindedly running her tongue over her teeth. "But I did do that. Earlier. I'm fine. I'm just…" She sank back into a seated position, staring at the floor in silence.

Mercurio sat down beside her, not quite sure what to say or do. Hell, he felt sorry for the chick, but he was no vampire—he couldn't help her really. And if the big man was sending her out on all of that business, well, that was between the two of them. She was being awfully vulnerable, though, so now he felt obligated to help her out. It also helped that he was still riding the morphine high; not to mention the blood he'd gotten earlier that evening. 

"Er, what'd you say your name was again?"

She looked back up, her eyes rimmed with red—bloody tears threatening to spill had she sulked any longer. "Remy." Her eyes glazed over suddenly and she stared at him, unblinking. He shivered, feeling like she was seeing right through him. "And you are the master of dreams, Mercury, the messenger…" Remy blinked and came back to the present, then noticed the look on his face. "God, why are you looking at me like that?"

Mercurio glanced away for a moment. "What, like what? You know you Malkavians just say shit sometimes. It's normal, isn't it?"

"Normal!" She scoffed. "None of this is normal. I don't even know what I said. What did I say?"

Mercurio frowned. "You just called me Mercury. I mean, it's Mercurio, but close enough. I've heard worse." 

"Right… Mercurio," she repeated, though she was no longer looking at him. She seemed to be talking to herself when she said it. _Sheesh. Malkavians._ Then she turned back to him and said, as if she hadn't just been freaking out, "You know, that's interesting. Mercury was the Roman messenger god, and you said you were someone who gets things done. Finds things. That's a fascinating connection." She hated the voices she had been subjected to the past two nights, but perhaps there was something to be learned from them. They led her there, after all. "You have any interest in mythology?"

Mercurio had been staring at her with furrowed brows the entire time she was speaking. What the hell did that have to do with anything? "Er, no. That's just my name. That's, uh, real interesting though. You go to school for that or something?"

Her face seemed to light up; well, as much as it could for a corpse's face. "Yes, actually. I'm—" Then her mood changed again and her enthusiasm seemed to dissipate as she turned her gaze away from him. "I _was_ a classics student. I guess it doesn't matter anymore." 

Mercurio shifted in his position on the couch. "Well, it matters that you still like it, don't it? Hey, now you don't gotta pay your debt back at least," he tried to joke. 

Her eyes no longer looked bloodshot. He figured it would be easy to distract her, if not just because she was a Malkavian but from what he'd seen of her personality so far. Hell, she seemed to be pretty good at distracting herself, considering the topics she had just jumped between.

She gave a half-hearted laugh, then suddenly turned to him, resting a hand on his arm. "I don't want to talk about myself. Too depressing. You tell me about yourself."

Well. A bold request from someone who was currently trespassing, but he still hadn't confronted her about that—so then he found himself obliging. "Me? Not much to tell. Nothing as interesting as that mythology stuff. From New York originally…" he stopped. He'd leave the majority out for now. "Got into some trouble. Came to California, met the Prince, now we're here."

"What kind of trouble?" Her hand was still on his arm. Neither seemed to notice.

Mercurio was almost taken aback by her forwardness, or rather felt that he should be taken aback. He thought about it; saying whatever's on your mind, not being afraid of your own thoughts… that was refreshing, compared to some of the bums he knew out there. He liked it. But he still wasn't going to tell her everything. "Eh, you know. Things I shouldn'ta done or said. All in the past now."

"Well, I'm a classics student. All I care about is the past." She grinned at him, her teeth showing.

He laughed—half at what she had said, and half at the fact that her new fangs weren't perfectly straight like you'd expect them to be. 

"Well, I'm sure you got a good imagination. Maybe I'll tell you someday." Not that it was likely there would ever be a _someday_. The Camarilla seemed to have a way of stamping neonates into the dirt—hey, none of his business. Even if she _was_ more likeable than some other licks he'd met.

She leaned back into the couch. Her backpack was still in her lap, but she seemed distracted from the things she had been fretting over before. "Fine, okay. You don't have to tell me all of your cool mafia stories tonight."

"Wh—how the hell did you know that?"

She shrugged casually. "You seem the type."

"Psychoanalyzed by a Malkavian, sheesh!" Mercurio was slightly unnerved; was it the hair, the accent, the clothes, or was it Malkavian voices whispering to her his entire life story?

"There it is again!"

"There's _what_ again?"

Remy sighed. "People talking about Malkavians like—like _that_. What's so bad about them? About us, I guess."

Mercurio was a little surprised by how little information she'd been given. Shouldn't there be some sort of handbook or something? He made a mental note to ask the boss about that eventually. "You said you got the voices, don't you? That about sums it up, from what I can tell. Maybe you only get those little, er, moments sometimes, but some are a helluva lot worse. They call 'em lunatics for a reason. Uh, no offense."

"None taken… I guess that makes sense." She stared off into space behind him. She was thinking of her professor; no wonder he was so strange. Only working at night, never talking about his home life except eccentric stories that seemed unreal, being vaguely inappropriate towards female students... Who would've guessed that it was because of his vampiric bloodline? (That apparently she was now unwillingly a part of.)

Watching her zone out, Mercurio took the moment to finally ask. "By the way, how the hell did you get in my house?"

Remy broke out of her daze and looked at him, her eyes growing big with worry. "Oh! I'm sorry. I forgot… well, I didn't forget, I just thought you didn't mind. Of course you mind." She looked ready to run out the door again. "I just, um, picked the lock. Sorry."

Mercurio found himself laughing again despite himself. "What, did they teach you how to do that in classics?"

"I learned it in… whatever. You aren't mad?" She sounded skeptical, but her shoulders relaxed once more. 

"I mean, I was confused, but…" he shrugged. But what? Nothing had changed, necessarily, he just suddenly didn't mind her presence. He made up his mind when he finished, "You can stay."

"What?" Remy had heard him perfectly well, but she didn't believe it. She had broken into his house with her meager belongings, hoping to get away from that filthy apartment, but she didn't have any plan beyond that. Though she hadn't thought that far ahead, she certainly didn't expect him to let her stay.

"I said you can stay. I've got a perfectly good couch with no one else sleeping on it. And you did save my ass, and get me that morphine, so I gotta repay you somehow."

She grinned widely. He smiled back—those crooked fangs again.

"God, thank you. That place the Prince gave me—it's disgusting! Well, I'm sure you saw it, you set up my email… thanks for that, too, by the way. 'Suckhead', though, really?" 

"Gotta find some way to have fun around here." Looking at her, another question suddenly came to mind. He wasn't sure if he should ask, since the matter seemed settled, but he couldn't help himself. "By the way, why my place specifically? Why didn't you ask LaCroix, or the Voermans, or something?" Not that he felt inadequate, but he wasn't her kind. Surely she would rather be around one of them.

She would rather see a sunrise than talk to the Prince or those crazy twins from her clan again. "You—" Remy paused. She didn't know if she should tell him; would it ruin it? The voices were silent, for once.

"What?"

"You feel safe." It wasn't the ideal wording, but it was true. 

Every time she'd met someone or seen something the past two nights, the voices had a lot to say about it. Usually it was incomprehensible, and so loud she was sure it had come from someone nearby. She found herself ripping her hands through her hair in frustration more than once. But a few times they had made sense, and the ramblings of the thinblood on the beach only confirmed it. 

Something told her she could trust Mercurio, and that man from the warehouse—Beckett. The feelings the voices had given were different between the two of them, but she didn't have the time or the recognition to discern that. All she knew was that she could be safe there.

Mercurio didn't know what to say to that. He'd realized she was forward, sure, but what was this all about? He was a ghoul who knew about weapons and drugs. He wouldn't count himself among the protectors of the world, that's for sure. But suddenly he felt like he should; or that he could.

"Well, I'm glad you think so," is what he finally settled on saying. Maybe it was some sort of Malkavian intuition thing.

There was a moment of silence, the air tense as she clearly had something else to say. He just looked at her and finally she said quickly, "There is another thing, though." 

"What? You got a twin too?"

Remy grimaced, realizing that he didn't know that the Voermans weren't really twins. She laughed it off, avoiding eye contact. She was afraid of what they—she—would do if Remy told anyone about their split personality.

"Um, no." But then she remembered her older brother and went quiet, suddenly realizing that she might not be able to see him ever again. She was ready to break down again when a voice in the front of her mind said something that she didn't quite pick up on. It calmed her. Getting a grip for once, she returned to the matter at hand. "You said you're someone who can get people things, right?"

"Do I like where this is going?" He was all for letting her stick around for the time being as a way to pay her back, but...

"All my stuff at my old college apartment. I need it." Even though she didn't have the bodily functions required to actually get her clothes _dirty_ , Remy sure was tired of wearing the same outfit she was wearing when her professor murdered her. 

Mercurio leaned back against the couch. The trespasser asking him to trespass; almost ironic. "Why can't you do it? You still got the key, don't you?"

"My roommate will be there all night, and I can't go while she's in class during the day. But I do have the key, and I can give it to you." Her eyes grew big again, though it was more of a pleading look this time. "Please?"

Mercurio stared at her. Hell, he'd done a lot worse than enter an apartment with its key to pick up some clothes. "Alright, alright, no need to look at me like that. Gimme the key and the address and I'll take a look tomorrow."

She grabbed his arm again; he noticed this time. Her hand was dead and freezing, but he didn't try to move it. She smiled. "You're a lifesaver."

"Try my best. Anyway, don't you got anything else to do tonight? Earlier I heard the Prince saying something about that ship out there, the, er, _Elizabeth_ something or other."

Remy started. "The _Elizabeth Dane_! Sitting here talking to you and I forgot all about it. I have to go." She stood, tossing her backpack onto the couch without looking to see where it would land.

Then she stopped as if a new thought had sprung to her mind. She sat again, looking at him in earnest. "Thanks again, Mercurio." The first time she'd actually called him something other than Mercury directly. "I'll, um, see you later. Maybe. I don't know when you sleep. Do you sleep during the day, actually? I guess the sun won't kill you, but you've got to deal with… our kind all night. That must be pretty inconvenient—"

Mercurio flicked her shoulder. "Let's chat about my sleep schedule after you do whatever the big man's got you doing, how about?"

Remy stood again. "Right." She wished she could say that it was the Embrace into her clan that had made her thoughts jumble up like they kept doing, but… she'd always been like that. She headed for the door, and once she'd turned around Mercurio smiled.

A voice played at the back of Remy's mind as she left. It tripped over the others, trying to interrupt the utterings that had been replaying over and over the past two nights. She couldn't quite understand what it was trying to tell her.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, comments are appreciated.


End file.
